This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Vehicle article carriers are used in a wide variety of applications to transport variously articles above an outer body surface of a vehicle. Typical vehicles, without limitation, are cars, trucks, SUVs, station wagons, minivans, full size vans and pickup trucks. The assignee of the present application, JAC Products, Inc. has been a leader in the design, development and production of a wide variety of vehicle article carriers for use on motor vehicles.
While previously developed vehicle article carriers developed by the assignee have proven to be successful and highly useful in transporting articles, it would still be useful if the vehicle article carrier incorporated some means of illumination by which the visibility of the vehicle to the operators of other vehicles is significantly improved. Moreover, it would be highly useful if the means for illuminating was self-powered such that there is no need for the vehicle's battery to be used to provide the necessary electrical power to the illumination means.
Still further, it would be highly desirable if a security feature could be integrated into a vehicle article carrier to provide a degree of added security to a user of the vehicle. By “security” feature it is meant some means or mechanism by which one or more images of areas around the vehicle could be generated and somehow provided to a user, such as remotely to the user's cell phone, so that the user could view the areas adjacent the vehicle as the user approaches the vehicle. This would be extremely desirable when the vehicle is parked in parking structures and other somewhat-secluded areas, where an individual would be able to hide in an area adjacent the vehicle without the vehicle owner being able to see the individual as the owner approached the vehicle to enter it. Such a feature would provide a high degree of additional security to the vehicle owner and potentially alert the vehicle owner to situations that present a danger to the vehicle owner.